Blogging for the Gray Wolf

Here they are again, snaring wolves, laughing their heads off. Killing animals is so much fun isn’t it? I mean what’s not to love about a wolf being strangled to death?

This, video, shot in Canada, gives you a frightening glimpse into a snared wolves fate. It’s very hard to watch but a necessary window into the trapping world. Even hunters are speaking out against this cruelty.

You saw the damage coyote traps did to B412’s paws. Imagine what’s happening to wolves right now in Idaho. The ones that are trapped and aren’t going to get loose. They are either choking to death, freezing to death, starving without food or water, exhausted from trying to “get away from the trap”, waiting to die when the trapper comes back, who may stomp them to death to protect the pelt. Remember these traps only have to be checked every 72 hours, that’s three days and who is counting really? Aren’t trappers on the honor system? Is someone official in the woods checking to see when traps are laid?

In a recent article in the Magic Valley Times, there’s talk of how popular the trapping classes were, just full to the brim. Isn’t that a comforting feeling? Trapping wolves is only allowed in Northern Idaho FOR NOW but southern Idaho trappers are itching to get going down there.

Responsible trapping? That’s an oxymoron. What is responsible about mangling and choking animals to death? Could someone answer that question? Trapping is cruel, barbarous and torture.

You see how this works. First there was wolf delisting and the subsequent hunt in 2009. Idaho set a quota of 220 wolves, Montana 75. No trapping or bow-hunting of wolves allowed in either state. Fast forward to 2011. Wolves delisted the second time by Congress. The gloves come off. Montana raises it’s quota of dead wolves to 220 and allows bow-hunting. Idaho has no quota in most of the state and extends the wolf hunt in the Lolo and Selway through June 2012, a 10 MONTH LONG HUNT”. They allow trapping and snaring through March 31, 2012 in Northern Idaho but now there is talk of including the entire state and maybe Montana and Wyoming will want to adopt traps and snares too. Do you see the escalation? This is what happens when wolves are delivered to their enemies. This isn’t a wolf hunt it’s a slaughter. Shame on Congress and Obama for allowing this to happen. SHAME!!

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A special thank you to wildlife biologist Tom Meier and veternarian Dr. Myer for tracking down and helping the wolf . If it wasn’t for them this wolf would be dead. How sad the other wolf, with it’s face swollen horribly by the choking snare, disappeared. This happened in 2008. More proof of the terrible pain and suffering caused by snares and traps.

Vet Removes Snare From Neck of Wolf in Denali National Park and Preserve

Dr. Denise Albert was able to remove a snare from around a wolf’s neck and treat the animal with antibiotics. NPS photo.

The wolves, their faces swollen, grotesquely so in one, were snared earlier this winter outside the park. Somehow they broke part of the cable and escaped, but the tightened loops around their necks remained. They recently returned to Denali.

The freed wolf, a large, gray male, had been spotted by several National Park Service employees last Thursday near Denali’s Savage River Campground. On Friday park wildlife biologist Tom Meier and a local veterinarian, Dr. Denise Albert, were able to track the wolf from the air thanks to a fresh snowfall. The two located the wounded wolf on a ridge near the Savage River bridge, which is about 15 miles up the park road.

The animal was immobilized with a tranquilizer dart, and Dr. Albert cleaned the wound and administered antibiotics. While the snare was deeply embedded in the wolf’s neck, the wound was not badly infected and Dr. Albert believes the wolf will survive its injuries. Afterwards the wolf rejoined the smaller wolf that it was traveling with, which may be its mate. The pair of wolves was seen along the park road on Saturday and Sunday, and the injured wolf seems to be recovering.

The Park Service took this action as the injury to the wolf was not due to natural causes.

Park staffers had been attempting to locate and treat the animal since the injury was first reported in late February. There had been several sightings, but the animal would be gone by the time staff could get to the site.

The second wolf with a snare around its neck had been traveling with the East Fork wolf pack, but has not been seen recently.

Idaho Allows Wolf Hunting Season With Traps, No Kill Quota

July 28, 2011 | Northwest Public Radio

SALMON, Idaho – The Idaho Fish and Game Commission voted Thursday for a plan that sets hunting and trapping season for the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf. The state hopes sportsmen will help keep the wolf population in check. But critics object to Idaho allowing hunters to use traps for the first time since the wolves were reintroduced.

The night before Fish and Game commissioners voted on the plan, there was a raucous public meeting, dominated by wolf foes. Mike and Irene Popp, a father and daughter anti-wolf team from Kamiah, testified Idaho isn’t going far enough to cut down the wolf population. 9-year-old Irene made a particular splash.

Irene Popp: “Can anyone tell me what’s good about the wolves?”

After that, the actual vote on the wolf hunting plan by the Fish and Game Commission seemed a little … anti-climactic.

Opinion on Wolves

Idaho’s Fish and Game officials tried to gauge public opinion on the hunting plan through an online poll. But the agency threw out the results after it appeared most of the people taking the poll were from other states – including California, New York and Florida. They were against it. The agency is also taking the results of a mailing campaign with a grain of salt. Most of the people who returned the postcards were hunters. They were for it.

But Idaho’s wolf management plan would do a couple of unprecedented things. For most of the state, there would be no quota – that is, no upper limit to how many total wolves are killed. It would also allow wolf trapping in the lower 48 for the first time in modern history. As an added incentive, commissioners also voted to dramatically lower the price of a wolf tag for out-of-staters from 186 dollars to about 31 dollars.

Jon Rachael is Idaho Fish and Game’s big game manager.

Jon Rachael: “You know, this proposal is for this season. We do not expect that this will bring us to some sort of magical or mystical balance that will make wolf lovers and wolf haters happy and make the elk come back, but it’s a step.”

Under the plan, trappers would be able to take up to three wolves. But because wolf trapping is new to Idaho sportsmen, they’ll first have to take a class on the subject. Toby Boudreau may be teaching some of the classes. He recently left Alaska to join Idaho Fish and Game. He’s trapped wolves himself.

Toby Boudreau: “You know, hunting’s a challenging way to get fur bearers because of their nocturnal nature. They often can’t be found during the day or found easily, whereas traps, you know, operate 24 hours a day.”

Idaho’s new wolf management rules allow traps that clamp the animal’s foot. They also allow snares. Boudreau brought a wire snare to the Fish and Game meeting to demonstrate how it would work on a wolf …

Toby Boudreau: “His head goes through and then the snare closes. Jessica: Cuz he’s still walking. Toby Boudreau: “Yes, he feels the restraint and pulls away, and um …”

This blog is dedicated to the memory of Wolf 253, the beloved Yellowstone Druid wolf named Limpy, who was shot and killed in March 08, on the very day ESA protections were lifted for the gray wolf, by the then Bush Administration.